Old dogs, new tricks

The kitchen of Spillett House is an infectious place to be. Not only is it filled with incredible smells of curries and fried rice, but the laughter amongst the novice chefs shows they're clearly having a great time.

The kitchen of Spillett House is an infectious place to be. Not only is it filled with incredible smells of curries and fried rice, but the laughter amongst the novice chefs shows they're clearly having a great time.

The group are part of Wannabe Chefs, a program designed to teach older men to cook, often for the first time in their lives.

Denis Treacy is running the course, which is being held at the Council of the Ageing headquarters in Darwin.

"We saw a lot of guys who don't cook, and who've never cooked. And then sometimes they lose a partner and they're on their own. One of the biggest things we've found here is that we have had some fun, and it is a social interaction. Food is so good at doing that."

Not only are the men getting a chance to meet new people in the course, they're also building skills to impress people at home.

David Boys lives in Wulagi, and freely admits he lets his wife do most of the cooking.

"My wife showed me how to cook spaghetti bolognaise, mainly for the times when she goes to Mahjong. After a while, we got sick of spaghetti bolognaise, and we switched to steak, chops, steak, chops, and that got boring. I got adventurous one day, and cooked up a meatloaf. No one was too keen to eat it! So I thought, something wrong here!"

While the program has given him a boost to his kitchen confidence, Boys still claims his wife is the best cook in the world, and that he'd be reluctant to challenge her in a cook off.

"It's not a good thing for my wife and myself to be in the kitchen together. I've never learned to cook before; I wouldn't try to teach my wife to drive the car, so I didn't expect her to teach me to cooking either!"

After being diagnosed with diabetes, Kerry Alderton knew something had to change.

"I'm simply a basic Aussie, meat and three vegetable, that's what I've been all my life. Now I've got to change. And you can't say I've got to change and not know what you're doing. So when this came along, I thought, great. And I'm enjoying it."

The course is not only teaching him healthier ways to cook familiar foods (such as a chicken burger), but also introducing him to new flavours that he's incorporating into many of his dishes.

"I'm enjoying it at home. I got all these ingredients; I got sesame oil, and soy sauce and balsamic vinegar - they're all new flavours for me."

Denis Treacy says the main thing is to keep cooking simple and fun, and also give options that the men can cook for just themselves.

"We talked at the start about different things the guys would like to cook. A lot of the meals that we've done are something simple. Beef stroganoff is a good example. And then we've done other dishes that I wanted them to be able to cook just for themselves. So we've done some simple things like an omelette, so if they wanted something for lunch or dinner and they're on their own (they can cook it). Tried to keep things really simple, that's the best way to cook."